A new study by UMRAM researchers Professor Kader Karlı Oguz and Arzu Ceylan Has has been published in Gynecological Endocrinology.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the most common reproductive endocrinopathy in women of childbearing age, is closely related with obesity and metabolic dysfunction. A similar increase in the prevalence of PCOS and obesity generated thoughts that these disorders might have a cause and effect relationship.

Food intake is controlled centrally by two complementary systems which are known as homeostatic and hedonic systems. These systems are important parts of gray matter in the central nervous system (CNS). These systems are also closely related with hormones, most well-known being an adipocyte-derived hormone leptin, which informs the brain about long-term energy stores. Ghrelin and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) are among other members of these systems and they are responsible for providing information about short-term energy status

Our aim was to detect differences in global brain volumes and identify relations between brain volume and appetite-related hormones in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) compared to body mass index-matched controls. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging and measurements of fasting ghrelin, leptin and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), as well as GLP-1 levels during mixed-meal tolerance test (MTT), were performed on forty subjects. We have observed a reduction in total brain volume and total gray matter volume, as well as gray matter reductions in some appetite-related areas. These alterations did not show any association with basal peripheral levels of leptin, ghrelin and GLP-1 and meal stimulated GLP-1 levels. Further studies with larger sample size are needed to assess the functional relevance of structural alterations in brain regions of PCOS.The full article can be found here: